Someone I like

The stories and photos you all send me are amazing and have enriched my life tremendously. Here's another wonderful knitter and human being, Ruth from Toronto. And what a smile!

Ruth writes, "Since retiring in 2003, I have been a volunteer at Mt. Sinai Hospital in downtown Toronto. I volunteer every Tuesday at a desk on the outpatients floor, directing patients to their respective appointments. I can almost finish a hat in the 6 hours that I am there. People stop and ask what I'm knitting. It's quite a conversation piece and I've given a few people the website address..."

Isn't she great? Thank you, Ruth, and all you other inspirational knitters out there!

Good Luck, Guys!

Sixty-one boys from Otniel, a Hesder Yeshiva in southern Israel, are to be drafted to the army this coming week. They'll be serving in three different units: tanks, Kfir (an elite infantry unit) and field intelligence (that's when you live in a bush for 3 days at a stretch, keeping watch on the area). They're all pretty rigorous, and not a lot of fun. Since both my sons attended the yeshiva in Otniel, I have warm feelings for the place so when one of my sons suggested that it'd be nice to distribute hats to all those being drafted, I couldn't refuse.

Here's a sweet thank you note and photo they sent back (the original note, in Hebrew, is below. This is my rough translation):

To Channah Koppel and her dear friends,

Our class in Otniel Yeshiva is being drafted into the army this month and this week we received the woolen hats you knit. We just wanted to say thank you very much for the hats, they are amazing and much nicer than any others we’ve ever seen! May you merit many mitzvoth! (good deeds)

Here’s a photo of some of us with the hats…

לחנה קופל וחברותיה היקרות!‎

השיעור שלנו בישיבת עתניאל הולך להתגייס בחודש הקרוב לצבא והשבוע קיבלנו מכם את כובעי הצמר שסרגתם. רק רצינו להגיד ממש תודה רבה על הכובעים, הם ממש מהממים והרבה יותר יפים מכל כובע צמר שראינו אי פעם!

תזכו למצוות!

מצורפת תמונה של חלקנו עם הכובעים...

The 100+ Club

Today, I want to share with you all photos of two amazing knitters:

This is Leila from Leeds, who just knit her 100th hat for Israeli soldiers!

And this is the amazing Natalie from Florida who sends me a box of about 20 hats every 4-6 weeks! I know, can you believe it?!? 


There are some incredible knitters out there and I'm deeply grateful to all of you for your ongoing dedication to this project. Knit on, ladies!We're having a cold winter here. It may even snow this weekend. 


If you need a little inspiration, here's a note from the mother of a soldier in Maglan, an elite fighting unit:


I want to thank you so much for the warm amazing hats that we gave to Maglan!  They are not able to write to you now, but they will when they return to base.


A little to tell the knitters:  Maglan just received the Ramatkal Prize for excellence this month [the Ramatkal is the Chief of the Israeli Army -- CK]. They are a fighting unit and they developed some new anti-terrorist tactics.  They work very hard and would be at a comparable level to a top USA Commando unit.  They want the knitters to know that their hats, which were so lovingly made, are literally helping them "keep their heads" warm in the bitter cold terrain that they are training on.

May you merit to see loads of blessing coming from your incredible endeavour!
Warmly,
T. on behalf of Maglan

A Package from Home

As many of you know, about half the hats I collect are distributed to lone soldiers in cooperation with a wonderful organization called "A Package from Home". Today, I had the privilege of taking part in the packing of 920 (!!)  packages in Jerusalem. They contained long underwear, socks, toiletries, snacks -- and, of course, a handknit hat. Within 2.5 hours all the packages were packed and soldiers were coming to pick them up in trucks. If you're not a knitter and want to know how you can donate funds or items to A Package from Home, check out their website.

And now for some photos...

the bags of labeled hats arrive in Jeru.

Each table is an assembly line that begins with hats

volunteer packers

more volunteers

some finished packages

soldiers come to collect the packages

Barbara Silverman, founder of A Package from Home

YouTube, MeTube

Here's a short 2.5 minute video about me & the hats:

It's quite strange to see and hear yourself on film but I agreed to do it because I do want this project to be "out there". Yes, I know they didn't spell my name correctly all the way through but other than that, I think it tells the story pretty well. Happy to hear your comments, and feel free to share it with others (please also inform any interested knitters that they can download the official pattern from this page). Thanks!

What's in a Hat?

The trunk of my car

Dear Knitters,
In the past few weeks, your hats have gone out to cold soldiers serving in Hebron, the Golan and the Negev. The soldiers have been very, very grateful and I, too, want to say: thank you!

Many of the hat knitters have fascinating personal stories that they've shared with me over the years. They are at least as touching as the fact that your hats keep on coming. As a Chanukah gift, I'd like to share two recent ones with you.

1. From a woman in Canada who has sent many hats over the years:

I picked up this last batch of hats from a lady who lives in a retirement village in Toronto. The lady who heads up this project is 79 years old. She is a holocaust survivor with much life experience. At one of the camps during the war, she and her sister were split up -- she risked her life by grabbing her sister from the arms of a nazi and saved her sister, and the stories go on. She is assisted in this project by a 97-year-old and a 90-year-old. These 3 ladies and about 15 others have knitted 180 hats for our project.

2. A woman in New Jersey, U.S.A. included this letter to soldiers in her latest hat shipment:

Dear Soldier,
I have been making hats for the IDF 3 years now. This year the hats have a special meaning to me. Ten days before my father Isaac’s yarzheit I decided to do something special. I made a commitment to make 10 hats in my dad’s memory.

My father controlled the port in Sudan, Africa. The paperwork for anything imported or exported from the port ran across his desk. My father was killed because he was a Jew and aided Jews in many different capacities. He died after purposely being run down by a Muslim driver. The driver jumped off the truck before the impact.

During one instance a group of Yemenites were fleeing to Israel but got lost. My father hid them among the bags of grain on the ship and they escaped to Israel. My mother (may her soul rest in peace) told me another instance. Prior to Passover a shipment of matzo arrived. The inspector refused to release the matzo because of the Star of David on the boxes. The Star of David had to be covered. My father painted each box in the shipment so that the Jews could receive them in time.

In conclusion, my father represented the embodiment of selflessness (with his very life), loyalty, love and respect for the Jewish people.

I want to thank you, from the bottom of my heart, for your service. May G-d bless you.

S.

A family photo from Sudan

Hi everyone!

Yup, it's the height of hat season -- it's cold at night and requests are coming in from soldiers on all our borders.  Every hat you send is greatly appreciated, and the hats go out, and onto cold heads, very soon after they arrive. So please do keep 'em coming.

Here's an English article on the hats project that ran just last week. It's a translation (almost accurate) of an article that ran in Hebrew a few months ago. Please distribute to anyone who you think might be interested.

thanks, Channah

Women knit hats for IDF troops

www.ynetnews.com

Activism: In past three years, Channah Koppel and her friends across the world have prepared thousands of wool hats distributed to Israeli soldiers